Previous CHIP has twice the RAM (512MB vs 256MB) and eight times more flash (4GB vs 512MB), and it is much cheaper (9$ vs 16$). The "Pro" CPU has same specs (1GHz ARM v7a). The only advantadge is smaller components, and probably less power consumption.
In my opinion, the 8$ CHIP is better than the 16$ "CHIP Pro". Also, for 15$ you can get a Pine64 [1] with much better specs (512MB RAM, 4 ARM64 Cortex A53 cores, ethernet, USBs, HDMI output, etc. -without flash/WiFi/Bluetooth-).
I guess that the 9$ price for the original CHIP was too low, being the reason of shipping delays (needing to compensate the lower board price with overpriced add-ons, with the risk of if not selling enough add-ons, running out of budget (?)).
1) A 5V 2A power suply is required (cheap to buy e.g. on Amazon or eBay). It boots with 5V 1.5A, too, but less stable if you are using the two USB ports at once with devices requiring notable power (e.g. wifi adapter).
2) Requires a 1080p HDMI monitor/TV, at least, for the images I tried (you can change that, editing a file in the SD card image, I knew that afterwards).
3) The OS image I use (Debian) have a bug in the network driver so I have to boot with network cable unplugged, and after booting, plugging it, and stop/start the network in the network icon (top right Debian desktop bar). It may be already fixed, but because it works as it is, I have no problem to click twice to restart the network after infrequent reboots I do for maintenance (e.g. once a month). I'll update it when I see someone reporting that it got fixed.
Regarding temperature, I put small metallic heatsinks (fanless) over the SoC and over the I/O chip. Running flawless on 100% load (where I live maximum temperature is about 35ºC in Summer, and I had not problems at all running the board 24/7 as ARM64 build server).
It is true that some provided images have issues, e.g. lack of 3D hardware acceleration on Debian.
TL;DR: for ARM64 development and GPIO stuff the Pine64 board is great (1 and 2GB model, the 512MB for head-less Linux), as "Linux desktop home cinema", it is not, because of lack of hardware-accelerated video and 3D support on provided Linux desktop disk images. However, using the same board (models with >= 1GB) you can run Android, with hardware acceleration, if I recall correctly (haven't tested Android myself on that board, yet).
Yeah I'm lost too. The Pro is almost twice the price of the original chip, and afaict the only difference is that it's a little smaller (and has no USB port).
Huh?
I've got a handful of the original CHIPs, and they're great for what they are. But I don't get this "Pro".
